self-sufficient habitat competition entry / new york city / fall 2013 / group members: Peter Kao, Vichithra Hitihami
New York City’s trash has no dignity. People have no desire to be self sufficient in the city. Reliant on invisible infrastructures that remove trash, residents simply ignore the black bags that pile up, lining the streets, and covering NYC’s most vibrant public area – the sidewalk.
The amount of trash that NYC generates in one year could fill a skyscraper. It could also cover 1.6 times the area of Central Park. Most of this trash fills the streets – waiting to be collected by loud cumbersome trucks and moved to landfills in neighboring states. Removing trash collection from the street level alleviates pressure from the ground, and allows the sidewalk to operate as an area for social interaction. Making the trash infrastructure visible and glorified brings light to the necessary systems at work in the city.
What if New York City’s trash could be removed from the rooftops rather than the ground? By changing the medium of garbage collection from trucks to hot-air balloons, green house gases emitted into NYC’s already polluted air could be significantly reduced. These balloons could easily transport trash to cities that use waste-to-energy technologies to power and heat their cities. Oslo, for example, has run out of trash and has to import trash to heat and power the city. These hot air balloons could burn some the trash that they collect to power the flight to cities that desperately need trash.
In addition, changing the densities of the street allows for significant potential at the ground level as well as a new area for exchange – the sky. The air can slowly become a medium for whimsical interactions, activities, and programs. This system provides potentials for future exploration of the sky: removing additional unwanted programs such as parking, or creating a new recreational space to densify the air.
- New York City
Oslo
